The Supreme People’s Court

Founded on Oct 22, 1949, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) is the highest trial organ of China. According to the Constitution, the People's Republic of China establishes the Supreme People's Court, local people's courts at all levels, and special people's courts. The SPC is responsible for hearing all kinds of cases, formulating judicial interpretations, supervising the judicial work of local people's courts at all levels and special people's courts, and managing the judicial administration of all courts throughout the country in accordance with the scope of responsibilities determined by law. Stipulated by the Constitution, the Law on Organization of the People’s Courts, and other relevant laws, the SPC conducts trial of the following cases:

1.First-hearing cases placed with the SPC by laws and regulations and those the SPC deems within its jurisdiction;

2.Appeals, petitions, or protests against trial decisions or verdicts of the higher people’s courts and special people’s courts;

3.Appeals against court judgments lodged by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate according to trial supervision procedures;

4.Approval of death penalty cases ruled by other courts;

5.Hearing and judging state compensation cases according to law, and deciding on state compensation;

6.Approval of cases ruled under statutory sentence.

Besides conducting trials, the SPC also administrates and coordinates the court order enforcement of people’s courts at various levels. At present, courts across the nation handle a large number of cases applying for compulsory execution, which are mainly executed by local people’s courts, while the Enforcement Bureau of the SPC is responsible for the administration, supervision, and coordination.

English text is based on the Chinese introduction on the official website of the Supreme People's Court of China (www.court.gov.cn).